［ house of cards. ］

[ eight encounters 4/4 ]

❧

"Don't forget to stay somewhere, wandering around the streets at such an hour isn't safe, okay?"

"Ok, mom."

The phone call ended as the man took the finishing cigarette out of his mouth and puffed out a whiff of smoke into the cold breezy night air. The time is now ten thirty, and the streets were almost lifeless. Holding his camera with his other hand while whistling a tune from a song he had heard on the radio while walking past the streets at morning, he admired the star-strewn night sky as he sat on a bench.

He sighed as he threw the cigarette into the bin. Homes were the worst places to find at such an hour. And for a wanderer like him who had never claimed a place home ever since he came out of college two years ago, the task was even tougher.

He would have been fine just spending his night sleeping on roadsides and alleys, but his old overprotective mother keeps pestering him to stay somewhere indoors. Not trying to let her stay worried for him again, he decided to try and find a place to stay for the long term.

But first, he shall take in the sky studded with stars for now.

Since young, he was always fascinated by nature's wonders. He liked seeing flowers bloom, water flow, clouds drift, and many more. But the one thing that drawed his attention the most was how the sky changes during each times of day. The way the vast baby blue transitions into pastel pink, how indigo blends with marigold, how the fiery orange gets warded off by various shades of dark blue. To him, the sky was God's canvas, creating spectacle by spectacle beyond human's abilities. And his job was to capture these wonders.

Even if he didn't have a place to stay, at least he still has a job. Working part-time as a landscape photographer, he felt like it was his dream come true to be able to take pictures like these for the sake of work. It fueled his passion as well as his income. He was very successful on this job, so successful that his boss even encouraged him to work full-time. He'd thought about it, and decided that unless he had found a place to stay, he won't be working full-time.

With a breath of awe, he lifted his camera and took a snap of the beautiful night. The man then stood up from the bench and continued walking down the quiet street. He released the hair band that gathered his thick brown locks together, which loosened them, allowing them to coil around his neck and shoulders. They were growing longer as the days go by, and so was his unintentional beard.

"I should shave..." He mused as he felt the unruly ends of facial hair with a hand of his. He recalled the reaction of his mother when she had caught him trying to grow out a beard since highschool. Needless to say, she was furious, and since that day she told him that he shouldn't grow a beard because it looks awful on him, and he kind of agrees. Until now, he still has no idea what his teen self was thinking back then.

He sighed. He missed his mother.

Back then, the day when he had gotten out of college, he had promised his mother that unless he has found a stable job and a place to call his home, he won't go back to his home and reunite with her, and she had agreed. After that, he missed her like crazy, but he remembered his promise, and he worked hard to accomplish those conditions in order to see her earlier.

Now, one condition had been fulfilled. But the other one was hopeless. He knew that he cannot stay sleeping outside for long. Because of this, it obstructed him from reuniting with his mother, whom he missed dearly.

With that in mind, he walked down the road with a firm look on his face. He had thought of it: he will now search for a street to sleep, and then the next day he'll find for some rental flats or apartments and try his luck. Satisfied, he walked and walked and walked, his mental note fully written down and memorised in his head.